I have hinted more than once, that such Poets, and their Admirers, almost always mistake Affectation for Beauty, and I wonder the Translator of _Homer_ should give them the least Countenance by his Example; for I am very much deceiv'd if there is a more affected Period in the _English_ Tongue than what follows: _Nothing is more lively_ and Picturesque _than the_ Attitude _of_ Patroclus _is describ'd in; The_ Pathetick _of his Speech is finely_ contrasted _by the_ Fierte _of_ Achilles. Again, _There's something inexpressibly_ riant _in the_ Compartments of _Achilles_'s Shield. In the _Spectator_, Nº 297. you read thus: _The last Fault which I shall take notice of in Stile, is the frequent Use of_ technical _Words or Terms of Art_. The bringing in more _French_ Words to soften and enervate our Stile is of very ill Consequence. The Translator, besides _Riant_, has also _Traits_, _ensanguin'd_, &c. I doubt, the Last is hardly a Word in any other Language, and does not at all enrich our own. _Dryden_, in an Epistle to the Earl of _Orrery_, has this Remark upon it: _I wish we might at length leave to borrow Words of another Nation, which is now a Wontonness in us, not a Necessity: But so long as some affect to speak, there will not be wanting others, who will have the Boldness to write them_. If I might make Use of the Word _Contrast_, nothing can be more so than Affectation and Simplicity; and the Translator seems, either not to have a just Notion of the Latter, or to have a very ill Opinion of it: For without distinguishing between Simplicity and Negligence, he affirms, _That Simplicity is a Word of Disguise for a shameful unpoetical Neglect of Expression_, he makes no Exception in this general Charge. And thus one of the greatest Beauties of both Thought and Expression is rendered one of the greatest Deformities. Father _Bouhours_ asserts, that _Simplicity contributes the most of any Thing to make a Stile perfect_; and again, _The Holy Scripture, the Stile of which is, at the same Time, so_ simple _and so_ sublime. Mr. _Addison_ has treated of the noble Force of Simplicity as it relates to Thought; and in the following Verses, if I am not mistaken, the Simplicity of Expression as well as Thought is noble: _So chear'd he his fair Spouse, and she was chear'd; But silently a gentle Tear let fall From either Eye, and wip'd them with her Hair. Two other precious Drops, that ready stood Each in their chrystal Sluice, he 'ere they fell Kist, as the gracious Signs of sweet Remorse, And pious Awe, that fear'd to have offended._ It is certain, Simplicity, as well as other Virtues in Speech, has its Vice, and that is Meanness which falls naturally into Burlesque, as this Line: _Then he will talk--good gods! How he will talk._